I got impatient!

So because his scan range increase, yellow now knows about my fleets (only some of them). And because of that I got nervous. And because of that and Pink's big push, I got impatient. So I've started my attack a little early.

And because of the amount of time it'll take me to get my ships to yellows stars, I wanted to go ahead and initiate the attack so I'd be awake tonight when they get there. And because of all that, I'll be on tenterhooks all day. Arrrrggg!

Another calm...

Just wanted to share a message I woke up to this morning:

Good old pink! It seems a little late in the game to be haggling over techs - that was the first thing I thought about. I suppose he's just realized he's between a rock and a hard place. He just got his scanning tech up and has spotted an enormous fleet of mine on his borders. I was hoping he'd be clueless as he still has more ships than I do despite being in a skirmish on his westerly border. I hope he doesn't have time to move them to his easterly border.

Oh and by the way, pink has screamed into the lead lately. I'm in second place and he has about 12 more stars than I do, I need to get my skates on.

And the attack looks good to go with light red. He's moving his ships to outside yellows range (I can see most of what he's doing) in preparation. I've been sending red details of what forces he can come to expect when he attacks yellow. I could just send him the scanning tech but I don't want to have my little hanger-on too knowledgeable about my territory.

And the last thing to note is that dark green has fallen under AI administration. What a shame. Not only is this bad for the game, it's also got huge borders with pink. Just like when dark red turned AI, I'd be gobbling up as many dark green stars as possible. Pink is going to go even further into the lead. Oh dear.

Discussions

I thought I'd start this post with a new big picture shot of the galaxy:

I've been talking to red pretty regularly since yesterday on finishing off dark red and moving against yellow. I think that's my decision anyway. As you can see from the above picture, both yellow and dark red are being harassed pretty heavily. Light red would rather us not get into a fight just yet - which is probably beneficial to both of us so yellow is the next logical choice. He's supposedly got an alliance with light blue but light blue looks to be in a world of hurt so yellow wants to keep as many strong friends as possible.

Red and I have been divvying up the dark red stars; I have 2 more to take and yellow has 2 more also. He accidentally took one that I was taking but he's agreed to give it back. Like Myk mentioned in one of his comments, its probably not worth me wasting a load of ships to take 2 more AI stars.

That dastardly Myk also suggested that I strike red's underbelly after he starts attacking yellow. I could do that, but having an ally is working out great so far. Lets hope he doesn't turn on me!

Another thing I've been thinking about is my techs. I was told yesterday that different techs have different prices - some take longer to research than others. I really had no idea. Because of this, my trading alliance with pink and light green has been going pretty well - particularly well for light green who's been researching the cheapest and getting some of the most expensive techs in return. Aside from that, he's giving me the runaround with handing over due techs so I'm getting a bit disappointed with him. I'm thinking of messaging pink and asking him to cut him off. Our tech research speed is excellent and I think that between the two of us, we can do just as well without beefing up the weakest of the three.

Just spotted something...

I've selected the yellow's territory so you can see his scan range. So notice that he can only see one of my stars - the one at the bottom of his yellow line. Also look at our stats comparison on the right with his ship count and technology difference.

But what's most interesting (and the reason for this post) is that there is a dark blue star nestled in the midst of his, right at the top.

This can only mean one thing - he's in a skirmish of some sort! Now I have no idea whether it is a full blown war or a simple skirmish and whether he is the attacker or defender. Due to light green's position, he has only one way to go, and that's through dark blue. You can see the light green star in dark blue's territory too. That means dark blue has battles on either side of his territory. Any skirmish that yellow is in (that isn't against me), is only a good thing for me. His ship count is too high and needs to come down a few notches. Battles are costly in Neptune's Pride and no-one can afford more than one battle at once.

Just something for me to think about.

The calm before the storm?

I feel like I've come to a bit of a standstill, or I wonder that it's the calm before the storm?

The attack against dark red has gone very well - almost too well. I've run over and taken a bunch of his stars and I'm trying to take a couple more with whatever few ships I have remaining after my attacks. And light red who was assisting me has also gobbled up more than I expected of him. We're almost jockying over his remaining stars now! The last few stars dark red has have reasonable sized fleets which makes them harder to take. I think light red and I will divvy up the few dark red stars available and then set our sights elsewhere.

But the question is where? I have a number of different choices now:

1. Build up my fleets and send them down to dark red to capture the few remaining stars - it'll be a costly ship count but will taking a few more stars from someone inactive get me that far in the long run?
2. I could attack yellow. Other than light red, he's my only other border and therefore will always be a threat. By the looks of his ship count, he hasn't done any attacking all game so he's currently leading that right now. Although his technology and economy are nowhere near mine, he'll be a force to be reckoned with and I should probably do some recruiting if I want to take him on. Light red seems like he's on my side (as far as that is possible in a game like this).
3. I could turn on light red. We've had somewhat of an alliance so far and I could either continue to use that or I could use it to my advantage. There are all sorts of players who would benefit from a few light red stars who I could try to convince to attack.
4. To extend my options further, I could make a pact with either light red or yellow to take one of their stars to use it as a staging ground for attacks against either light blue or dark blue respectively. I'm sure they'd want in on the action but do I really want to extend myself that far?

I think for the time being (next few days), I'll just be gathering my forces up - doing loops around my stars picking up ships. I'll be keeping them out of other players scan range though. I'd rather not let them know where my biggest fleets are situated.

Opportunity or disappointment?

I had 2 very interesting messages come up since I last logged on.

Before I detail the messages, let me just start by saying that I captured two dark red stars last night. The first had a resistance of about 10, the other was a free take.

So firstly, dark red is now under AI control. To be perfectly honest, I'm very disappointed. I was hoping that all players would be active until the very end. In my last game, the AI just sat on the stars it had and didn't make any other moves. Unless the developers have made changes, I have to assume that dark red AI will do the same thing; Just sit there waiting to die.

There is a chance that he's just on holiday or something and his week away is temporary. Whatever the case, I have to capitalize and take as many stars from him as possible. The more productive stars I have, the better my economy and industry. Yes I'm going to shoot into the lead even more than I already am but I cant afford to look this gift horse in the mouth.

Anyway, now that I'm closer to his other stars, my scan range is revealing what his defenses look like and I can take a few more before my fleets are whittled down. I cant really afford to bring over many reinforcements because of the next point as you'll see below:

Secondly, light red sent me a message informing me that yellow (who up until this point has not been attacking anyone by the looks of his fleet count) is massing his forces on Matar, the only star that he has jump range to one of my stars (Baham). Saying this, he currently does not have the scanning technology high enough to see what I have at my star. Before we get our knickers in a twist thinking he's going to attack me, let me also mention that Matar is also within his jump range to light red. I think light red told me about this because he wanted to know if I had an alliance with yellow. If I did, he knew those ships would be destined to his star, if not, he know's he's got a 50/50 chance. I replied honestly and said we had pleasantries early on in the game but no formal "alliance" and also asked what sort of numbers I should expect (as he's out of my scan range too). I'm mustering whatever forces I can to Baham (which already has 13 ships present). A lot of my ships are at the other side of my territory fight with dark red and yellow has to know this by watching the stars I'm taking over. The war on two fronts that is the bane of this game looks like it might be coming my way sooner than I expected. I'm definitely just going to play a defensive role here and wait it out - you never know, nothing may come of it.

The attack is on!

This morning I woke to find that my first (planned) attack towards Leeroy was successful. I knew it would be but there's always the fear that they have fleets on their way to beef up their defenses and crush your no-turning-back fleet.

As the screen above shows, I've sent off two fleets into uncharted space. Yes this is a gamble but I think it's worth a shot. Besides, the game would be boring without a little excitement, wouldn't it? If you look at the stats of Leeroy, you'll see that he has almost as many ships as I do but not the technology that I do. Taking this into consideration, my fleet of 52 should do well providing he hasn't got a load of ships at Talitha. Because I just used this fleet to capture Tarazet, he knows exactly how strong my forces are on his borders. If he's wise, he'll be maneuvering his forces in his territory to counter mine. Saying that, his speed is slower than mine and it takes forever at the best of times in this game to get your fleets anywhere.

Not so sure about the fleet destined for Maia though. 4 ships isnt really enough if there's any resistance whatsoever due to the way combat works. However, if it has no ships defending it, I'll have a free star from which to use as a defensive base which would also reduce his income/industry.

Although I got a message from red indicating he'd like a slice of the fight, I haven't seen any movement from him yet but he may be moving his forces out of my scan range. I've sent him a follow up message to see if he'll tell me what's going on.

Just got weapon strength from pink, he's been coming through great for me and his science research is better than mine so all being well, this should be a good relationship. I'd say that Weapon strength and speed are arguably the most important techs in the game so between the two of us, we should do well.

Yellow also took back his star with no drama so hopefully our borders should stay as they are for a while.

Last thing to notice, nearly every one of my stars now has at least one ship garrisoned. This'll prevent enemies from poaching my stars without casualties. It just makes me less of a target. Due to the way combat works, even a single ship defending will take out a slice of an attacking fleet. Take enough stars with single ships present and you'll find your force dwindles quickly.